The Power of Metaphors

Metaphors are powerful ways of capturing an idea, attaching it to something well-known, then delivering that message to our memory banks to be retrieved as needed to inspire and instruct us as we travel the road of life.

The Power of Thought

Our thoughts are powerful things as well. They shape and form who we are, like so many hands molding clay. Each thought is an impression, an indention into the clay of our minds. And each indention in the clay of our minds is an indention into our lives.

Joyful thoughts change us; we become more joyful because of them. Sad, angry, resentful or hateful thoughts change us too. In fact, we become what we think about over time.

If our thoughts are mostly ugly, our hearts harden and our minds grow slow with frigidity. In the midst of beauty, we see ugly. Sometimes, only the ugly.

If, on the other hand, our minds are alive with hope and gratitude, with faith and confidence, with compassion and forgiveness, then our lives become light and happy, filled with immeasurable joy. Then in the midst of ugly, we spot the beauty. And sometimes, we only notice the beauty.

But what of those thoughts that seem to intrude on our minds, breaking through the “Keep Out” signs we’ve hung on the door of our memory and beat us up in the back alleys of our imagination?

Sometimes even in the midst of sitting quietly with a good book or doing something fun or enjoyable, thoughts of painful pasts or guilt or judgment can jump us from behind and leave us emotionally bloodied and battered.

But we are not without defense. We have options. We are not passive bystanders to life. We can stand at the door of our minds as the bouncers of our thoughts and determine who gets in.

It’s time we start.

3 Metaphors of the Mind

Life is just too precious and too short to sit around hoping our thoughts will be happy and uplifting and optimistic and inspiring. If we sit at that door and simply hope the right “people” come in, it won’t take long before we notice, they don’t. Like the right people, the right thoughts must be pursued too. Mental metaphors can help instruct us in that effort.

Try these out for size …

#1: The Key

Our memories of the past have only the power we give them to exercise influence over us. We lend our memories energy by remembering them, by spending time with them, by indulging them and letting them in when they come knocking on the front door of our minds. We’ve even given some of our memories the key to the door so they don’t even have to knock anymore. They simply come and go at will.

Well, no more! Take the key away. For now on, you are the guard at the gate of your mind. YOU choose what memories will enter and which ones will be banned, outcast, ostracized and banished. You hold the key to the thoughts of anger and suspicion, doubt, embarrassment and pessimism.

Lesson:You hold the key: You are the steward of your mind and can choose what thoughts and memories to let in. No thought can enter the door of your mind without your permission. So stop granting permission to those thoughts that undermine who you are inside, at your best.

#2: The Garden

Note: This metaphor is inspired by James Allen’s, As a Man Thinketh (I recommend it!).

Your mind is like a garden. You are the gardener. In this garden are all the things you might find in any garden: Beautiful flowers and vibrant growth as trees and bushes are nourished by the sun. But underneath it all are aphids and grubs of all sorts munching and crunching on the roots, leaves and pedals that beautify your garden. There are weeds as well springing up underneath the brush. But you are the gardener. You manage the garden. If left unchecked, there will be overgrowth and bug infestations and weeds that choke out the plants that make your garden beautiful.

You, as the gardener of your mind can let your mind wander where it will, the weed-thoughts of pain and humiliation and negativity drifting into your mental garden, planting themselves there, growing at will. But as the gardener, you can put on your gardening gloves, pick up the shovel and weeder and go to work plucking out the ugly weed-thoughts, spraying the thought-bugs that eat away at the beauty of your life.

Be an active gardener and pluck out the weeds before they have a chance to propagate themselves, spreading and digging in.

Lesson:You are the gardener: You can debug your mind and remove memory weeds that choke out the good and the positive and the beautiful. You can remove undermining thoughts. You can plant empowering ones. So plant them!

#3: The Stage

Note: This idea is inspired by the educator-turned-religious-leader, Boyd K. Packer.

Think of your mind as though it was a stage. On that stage are performers acting out scenes all the time. You are the director and the screen writer. You produce the plays and hire and fire the actors. You are in complete control even if you’ve relinquished that control over the years to the actors who currently run wild choosing any old scene they like to act out at will.

But the reality is that you are in charge. At any moment you can resume that authority. So do so now.

Choose which actors you want acting out which scenes on the stage of your mind. If creepy characters pop up trying to act out scenes of past pain and anger and despair, dismiss them immediately.

But this is key: The stage of your mind will not stay empty for long. It won’t. And if you don’t choose the scene played by the actors of your choosing, the creepy actors will sneak back onto the stage and play out scenes of despair or doubt or fear or disappointment or anger or loss or hate or lust or revenge.

So begin to choose.

Select the scenes to be acted out. As creepy images of the past slither onto the stage, as the director, dismiss them and redirect the play to your liking. Don’t beat them up. Don’t disparage the writer. Simply dismiss the actors you don’t want there and replace them with those you do.

Replace screenplays of ugliness and pain with higher scripts of gratitude and joy and deep enjoyment of the beauties of life. You’re the director, so direct!

Lesson: You are the director and the writer: You can deliberately choose which thoughts populate the stage of your mind. You write the script. So write it well.

Final Thoughts

What we think can play tricks on who we decide we can be. Our thoughts can limit our faith and confidence, derailing hope and desire.

Our thoughts can drag us to a crawl and even sink us in the mud and quicksand of our self-limiting doubts and fears and anger. Memory is the vehicle by which such thoughts can run us over and shut us down and hold us back from reaching our potential.

Don’t let it!

Instead, choose which thoughts will be let into your mind. Be patient with yourself as you begin retraining the way you think. Like creating a streamlined body, it can also take a while to change how you habitually think. But you can streamline your thoughts as well.

So get rid of your self-defeating thoughts as they intrude. And stay vigilant as you constantly retrain your thoughts to be positive, grateful, kind and generous.

As you do so, the world will begin to look very different than it does today. And, my friend, you will like it.

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28 Comments

I really like your language in this post, especially the clay analogy and how each thought shapes our mind & lives. I also like the garden analogy which I’ve used in the sense of each thought is a seed planted in the garden, then we water what we want & weed out what we don’t. The real “key” is choice. What kind of thoughts do we chose to fill our minds & lives with?

Thanks Brad! I’m glad you liked what I said here. It’s true, isn’t it? All we say and think and do is yet another brick in the structure of our lives. Each experience and our reaction to each experience helps construct the person we end up being. In that light, it becomes so important to mind our thoughts and actions and attitudes and words.

This should be required reading for everyone on the planet. It is a very simple, clear explanation of THE thing that will change your life and everything about it, including your entire outlook on why you are here. I even fb shared it, so there 🙂 You should consider submitting this to some magazines or something to get the message wider coverage.Julie | A Cear Sign recently posted … Should You Be Afraid That Something Bad or Scary Will Come Out in Your Intuitive Reading?

I agree that changing our thoughts can be life changing. The more our thoughts have been deeply mired in the sludge of thinking, the more noticeably life-changing such changes can be once we start to retrain our minds to think more elevated, positive and affirming thoughts.

Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words. You are just too kind.

PS: What kind of magazine would I submit the article to? Blogging notwithstanding, I’m really not very internet savvy! 🙂

I love stopping by your place…it is always an exercise for my brain and my heart. You inspire me to take things apart and put them back together so that they may fit better and create more harmony in my life. Today’s post is no exception….the exception today lies within me. I am having one of those “who am I kidding” days…I tell myself that everyone has them…;-) It makes it easier 😉
So, here’s this amazing post…beautifully written, filled to the brim with…well…metaphors….thoughtful and relevant in their “lessons”. The key, the garden and the stage all offer very do-able approaches to filling our mind with right thoughts. And, in doing so, we can look at life with more healthy eyes perhaps or tackle obstacles and attain goals with more focus. But, what happens on those days when your mind won’t let go of the “who am I kidding” taunt? It’s more of a rhetorical question really because, I am pretty sure that for each of us, there is a different answer. But sometimes, you “know” logically and intellectually what is right. Sometimes you “know” that you need to rid yourself of the tyranny of memories, for instance. Or sometimes you “know” that you must insert metaphors into the pattern of your day to help your thoughts. But,there are days (like today for me) when it’s just not happening. And, what the wisdom of age ( oh yes) has given to me is a clearer understanding of patience. That sometimes, just allowing myself to embrace the “who am I kidding?” and see what comes of it is part of the journey. Maybe there are gifts that being out of focus every once in awhile might give to me.
Ken, this wonderful place offers a sort of ongoing conversation. Each new post is like a new topic that flows from the last one so that your community can continue the exploration of their thoughts and feelings. I know my fingers sometimes don’t know when to stop typing and for that, I apologize. Thank you for sharing such compelling posts!
ClaudiaClaudia recently posted … We Did the Monster Mash – Imagination and Halloween

We all have those “Who am I kidding” days when confidence wanes and purpose takes a second seat to insecurity. We look around and compare ourselves to those who have more measurable accoutrements of success and start feeling a little less than up to par.

I guess training a mind is a lot like training a body. Some people are as unfit as a triathlete is fit. Some who go to the gym every day for hours on end look extremely healthy, but fill their bodies with heavily processed foods, grease and oil and salt and other poisons to the body. There is a guy who goes to the gym I frequent who is very built on top — large pecs, large shoulders, big arms — but who has tiny skinny legs. He focuses on his upper body strength and ignores his lower.

I suppose my point is that our minds are sort of in the same condition. Some of us exercise it regularly, training it to see the beauty and be confident, immediately getting rid of the self-defeating weed-like thoughts. Others go to the “gym of life” irregularly and are not as effective. Some focus on some mental exercises and neglect others. Bottom line is that we can become better at gliding through and even transforming our “who am I kidding” days over time as positive thoughts become increasingly ingrained as we continue to exercise that “muscle set.”

Having said that, I absolutely agree with you that sometimes, regardless, we will simply be out of it. It is in those times that I like to ask myself questions:

1. Is there an area of growth I should concentrate on and make a focus of research and development that will help me reach the next level in ability?
2. What concrete steps can I take today to move me one day, on step, one inch closer to my goals?
3. Is it fair to compare what I am doing for the length of time I’ve been doing it to those who have been doing it longer?

Sometimes such questions help. Other times they might not help as much. In those cases, I like to take a step or two back, relax, go on a hike, work out, read a book unrelated to what I’m feeling insecure about, take a walk, play with my little boy or whatever, just to get my mind off it. Often, a day or two of rest and play allows me to regroup and refocus and get down to the art of learning and growing and feeling better about the steps I’m taking.

Anyway, this is what usually helps me out of my funks. I hope you’re feeling much, much, much better today (sorry for the time lapse in my reply!)! And thank you once again for all your insight, honesty, encouragement, kindness, and wisdom.

I love the way you are explaining how our thoughts can affect us. “You are what you think you are.”

I like to think of myself as a garden with those beautiful flowers growing. I keep the Raid handy for those insects and have learned to get the weeds out of my garden. When those weeds start to grow (past hurts) I smile and remember what I have learned from them and are thankful for them, because they have made me who I am today. Then I watch as they wither away and smile.

Our mind is our power and you are showing others how to make it an asset in our lives. It is a blessing and we do have to feed it with those nourishing thoughts and memories.
Blessing to you, Ken
DebbieDebbie recently posted … 4 Words Your Husband Does Not Want to Hear You Say!

Absolutely loved the way you worded that! I especially liked how you smile at the weeds for the lessons they taught you and the person they helped make you, then smile again as you let them wither away!

You’re right about the power of our mind and thoughts. The human mind is an amazingly powerful thing that most of us have not fully tapped. It can even change reality, either by altering our experience of it or by changing the outcome of what once seemed inevitable.

Thank you so much for adding that added layer of depth to the article. And thank you also for your kind words!

first of all thanks for contributing to the magazine and I look forward to more articles lol!. also my apologies for being a bit absent, i have taken on more responsibilities at work and I am trying to juggle so many things properly.
with reference to your article:

i agree with the concept of metaphors and my take home thought for the day is the fact that we aren’t without defence, because there are options.
also the analogy of our mind being a garden stands out for me. our negative thoughts which are generally unhelpful pose as weeds in the garden and no matter how firm the roots are, it’s always the gardeners responsibility to take care of the garden uprooting the weeds and making it look beautiful i.e. we need to deal with the unhelpful thoughts that constant weigh us down and assume a position of strength with constructive thoughts as time goes on.

Let me tell you it is always a pleasure to be a part of your magazine. It is a beautiful work of art and profound in its content. I love reading it and am honored to be featured in it. So I’ll be sending you articles until you get tired of seeing my name in print! 🙂

All those imagery methods of teaching are just so powerful, whether talking about metaphors or analogies or parables. They are easy to remember, add depth to the principle being taught and allows to deep symbolism to speak to a variety of levels and nuances that go beyond just the words on the page.

Great point about the how deeply some of the roots to our self-defeating thoughts are dug in. Some are truly buried deep and pulling those weeds from the garden of our minds can sometimes require professional help and should be sought by those who need it. But, as you say, ultimately, it is the gardener’s responsibility to start tugging at those pesky things!

Ken,
I’ve never thought of my mind as a stage before. The concept is new to me. It makes sense. I find that what I read and see affects my thoughts. I watch very little TV and avoid all forms of other media when it comes to the news. Sometimes I don’t know about events that happens for days. It works for me.Tess The Bold Life recently posted … The Effortless Life: Leo Babauta Interview # 6

I know of one social commentator who refers to television news as a “proctologist’s view of America” (or, by extension, the world). I believe that’s true. While I stay up to date on some issues I think are important, I’m right with you on most of the garbage that fills the pages and the minds of too many. Such power rests in the hands of the media and so much of that power to do good is squandered on gossip and car crashes and police chases and the like. Such a shame.

I’m also with you in watching very little TV. There’s just so much more to do than sit down and watch other people pretend to do things!

When I have negative thoughts what helps me the most is finding something to help me turn it around like a favorite saying or song. Repeating those things that uplift me helps the most in re-focusing on what I want to think about. Thanks for sharing this!Wendy Irene recently posted … The Little Bugger is at it again.

Great advice for changing our thoughts. Distraction often works and replacing negative with positive ones helps too. Using positive emotions to replace negative emotions can further result in more positive thinking. But to combine all three, and you have a powerful tool for lifting thought to higher ground!

So true, Akos! Gratitude truly is a powerful way to pull ourselves out of our muddier thoughts. It’s quite impossible, as a matter of fact, to simultaneously feel grateful and have negative thoughts. The two are mutually exclusive. Thanks for adding that to the conversation, Akos!

That’s an interesting point I hadn’t thought of before. We can’t appreciate day without night or warm without cold or happiness without its opposite. I suppose there’s opposition in all things as a way to emphasize all the good things about life.

I especially loved this fresh take on a call to action: “Like the right people, the right thoughts must be pursued too…”

I like to think of it as a talk-radio show (my metaphor 🙂 ) When I surrender my state of being over to the counterfeit self, it hosts my talk-radio show … and when it’s hosting, I can pretty much guarantee that my day will be predictably mediocre. By looking at my counterfeit self and its band of unmerry thought-voices this way, it helps me realize that I created a monster. What’s worse is that I handed my talk-radio show over to it, and consequently, handed title of my life over to it. Now I’m empowered to invite inspiring and uplifting guests into the studio.rob white recently posted … Life is in the Language

I love your talk-radio show metaphor! What a great imagery: inviting inspiring and uplifting guests into the studio of your mind.

I agree with you that we are the creators of those monsters of thought,as you say. And that’s the first step to gaining control over them. Once we accept that we are in charge of what plays out in our minds, we are empowered to do something about those pesky mediocrity-producing thought-voices.

It has given me another tool to work with. I constantly have to work with the thoughts of whethor or not I have been “offended,” or “did I offend someone?” As you can well imagine it is quite painful. In fact, just this morning I was ‘doing battle ‘ with a thought after a benign encounter with a neighbor who was walking their dog, and afterwards feeling like a bad person, all stemming from childhood abuse.

Hi Karen! So sorry for the late reply. Somehow this one slipped by me. Not a very helpful situation, given the topic! 🙂

I always love to hear from you. I love your openness and honesty and desire to learn and grow. You’re an example to us all. Too many of us can become very complacent in our set of moral and emotional circumstances. Most people, for example, don;t read personal development blogs because most people don;t seem to be very motivated to pursue personal development.

Most of the time our feelings are so automatic, so spontaneous that we seldom make the connection between feeling and thought. But feelings are the offspring of what we think and how we think. Most of our thoughts are habitual. And that’s why feelings seem so spontaneous and out of our control. Learning to change our beliefs can reshape the context for our thinking.

It’s kind of like trying to grow a tropical plant in the desert sand. If the plant is our way of thinking and the fruit it bears are the feelings the plant produces, the soil and the climate are the beliefs we hold about who we are, how others should behave, what love means, what love should feel like, what others should do to demonstrate love, how we should feel if someone truly loved us, what life is all about, what our role is on it, and so on.

A tropical plant cannot grow well in the heat and sand of a desert. It has to be transplanted into a different climate with different soil. So our thoughts will shrivel and wilt if our beliefs don’t support the growth and positive nature required for the fruit we want to pluck from the it.

I hope things are good between you and your neighbor now and sorry again for the delayed reply.

Welcome to M2bH! Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. I really appreciate it.

The mind is truly a fascinating organ. So much power stored up in there. It is amazing how it can so completely impact the physical, emotional and spiritual parts of being human in such profound and lasting ways. And all it takes is a few tweaks in how we think and perceive the world and how we experience the world then changes so dramatically!

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. Hope to see you around again soon! 🙂

Such a great article, your advices are simple nice! Sometimes it is really hard to change our thoughts but your tips could gave people some special capabilities. Thanks for sharing!Julie recently posted … dental crowns cost

You’re right about it being hard to change our thoughts. They are such stubborn things, aren’t they? But they can be changed. Sometimes slowly, very slowly, day after day, thought by thought, we can reprogram how we automatically think. Then, one thought at a time, our general attitudes start to change. We start to see the world through different lenses. And life begins to look brighter, more beautiful and we find ourselves happier as well.

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About Me

My name is Ken Wert, the founder of M2bH. My purpose here is to teach you how to live a richer life of greater purpose and meaning, of mind-blowing possibility and deeper, more soul-satisfying happiness than you ever dreamt was possible. Join us on this happy adventure as you learn how to unlock your hidden potential to enjoy the rewards of a life well lived. Read more ...